(Finance) – “A positive mini-rebound compared to April, determined by the growth of the non-food sector. But that is not enough to change the picture of trade, conditioned by high inflation which is also strongly felt in May: despite a increase in sales in value over last year (+3%), in fact, we continue to record a drop in sales volumes of -4.7% compared to May 2022, and -3.7% in the first four months of 2023″. This is what Confesercenti in a note.
It is mainly the shops that lose out. Driven by the cost of living, sales are in fact following different trends depending on the purchasing channels used. The traditional trade continues to suffer more, recording a further drop of -0.6% on May 2022, against a +6.5% increase in large-scale distribution. In the large distribution the preferences of families also fall above all towards the most convenient formats: i discount recorded a trend variation of +11%, the highest increase since September 2022. This channel may have made the most of the price gap with respect to more traditional sales formats for some products and maintained its competitiveness while passing on higher price increases to consumers. L’ecommerce, which exploded during the restrictions, while remaining on positive ground, instead shows a slowdown (+1.5% in May compared to 4.3% in the quarter).
“Inflation continues to remain at high levels, emptying wallets and shopping bags: Italians spend more to buy less – comments Confesercenti -. A particularly difficult context for small sales areas, which in order to contain prices are forced to reduce their margins, already under pressure from the general increase in costs.In particular, the increase in interest rates is now also weighing on businesses and households: the increase in mortgages not only slows down business investment , but it also displaces household budgets.We accept the appeal launched by president of ABI Antonio Patuelli: we need more flexible European rules, and the lengthening of the duration of mortgages”.
(Photo: Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay )